What is the difference between holiday pay and double holiday pay?
Simple holiday pay is not an extra payment at all. It is the normal remuneration you receive for the days you are on leave, so your salary continues while you are away.
Double holiday pay is the extra. For employees it amounts to 92% of the gross monthly salary and is paid when the main holiday is taken, as the ONSS instructions on holiday pay set out. It is the payment most people mean when they talk about their holiday money arriving.
Why is your first year in Belgium always short?
Because entitlement is built up in the preceding year, called the reference year. What you can take and what you are paid this year both depend on what you worked last year.
Someone starting their first Belgian job, or arriving from abroad, therefore has a reduced entitlement in year one regardless of how hard they work. There are supplementary schemes that can bridge part of the gap, but the default is a short first year, and it is worth planning for rather than discovering in July.
What happens to holiday pay when you change employer?
Your former employer pays out what you accrued and issues a holiday certificate. Your new employer offsets that amount against what it owes you when you take leave.
This is why a first holiday at a new employer can look underpaid. It usually is not: part of the money was already advanced by the previous employer, and the certificate is what allows the new one to avoid paying twice. Keep it, because reconstructing it later is tedious.
Is holiday pay an extra-legal benefit?
No, and the distinction matters when comparing offers. Holiday pay and double holiday pay are statutory: every employer owes them, so they are not something an employer can offer you as an advantage. Extra-legal benefits are the part of a package an employer chooses to grant.
An offer that presents double holiday pay as a benefit is describing something you are entitled to anywhere. The comparison worth making is on gross versus net salary and on what actually varies between employers — you can see how each of the roles currently open is structured.
